Sickness

Cody has the flu.

He woke up not feeling well this morning, and took his temperature. I was eating breakfast when he came into the room and said, "Mom, I've got 101.2 temperature." I said, "You go back to bed!"

I gave him some acetaminophen and settled him in on the couch watching DVDs. I went on to work, thinking that if he was still sick tomorrow morning, I'd take him to the doctor. However, that 101 got more and more worrisome, so as soon as the Dr.'s office opened, I called and made him an appointment, pausing to thank God that we still have quality health care in this country--though that seems to be about to change.

When I got came home from work to take him to the Dr, I checked his temp again, and it was 102.3, and that was after two doses of Acetaminophen. They did a flu test on him, but it came back negative. His Dr said that despite what the test said, he thinks it's the flu anyway. He told me that those tests have up to a 70% inaccuracy. He didn't test Cody for swine flu. He said that the CDC would not allow them to test at the office, and the local ER was only allowed to do three swine flu tests per week.

Dr said that those tests were mainly so the CDC could track swine flu, because the treatment is the same as it is for regular flu. If I really wanted to confirm H1N1, I would have to take him to LeBonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis.

The Doctor gave him some Tamiflu to help with the flu symptoms, and an antibiotic. The deaths that occur from flu aren't really from flu, but from secondary infections--thus the antibiotic as a precaution. He also said that since we caught it within the first 24 hours, Cody ought to bounce back pretty quickly.

Anyway, Cody'll be out of school all week, and he'll have to miss the band contest this weekend. He is majorly bummed about that. He loves being in the band and takes those contests very seriously. Not only that, tomorrow is his birthday, and he's going to be sick on his birthday. Poor baby.

Funny how life comes full circle. I had a serious case of the flu back during the first swine flu outbreak, back in the '70's. Now during the Great Outbreak of the 00's, my son has the flu.